Twitter eclipses 20 billion tweets

A Japanese man posted an innocuous tweet over the weekend, which translators have had difficulty understanding, but regardless what the message actually said there is no question as to its significance – it is the 20 billionth posting in the short history of Twitter.

The man posted a message that appeared to be part of a longer back-and-forth with another user. UK news site The Guardian reports that the 20 billionth tweet, posted in Japanese, roughly translates to, “So that means the barrage might come back later all at once.”

The man, a graphic designer who has the rather unusual Twitter account name GGGGGGo_Lets_Go, was quickly informed about his message’s milestone status and posted a reaction, which was a lot easier to decipher into English:

“It looks like I posted the 20 billionth tweet. I’m getting replies from people all over the world. It’s scary. What are the chances? Maybe I’m going to die. Is it more amazing than winning the lottery? I thought it was a joke.”

The 20 billionth message comes just three years after Twitter first opened its doors in July 2010, equating to an average of roughly 215 tweets every second since then.

The microblogging site hit 10 million tweets in February, signifying more than 700 tweets per second since then. According to The Guardian, the site’s all-time activity spike was during the Japan vs Denmark World Cup soccer match, during which time some 3,283 tweets were being posted every second from all over the world.